Shopping for Green Outdoor Gear

It seems like just about every outdoor company these days are touting some 'green' aspect to their product. Finding some truly eco-friendly gear or clothing can be difficult, and while no product can be truly eco 'friendly' there are definitely less destructive purchases you can make in your life that will lessen the impact on mother earth. Below are a few tips and explanations to help you make the informed choice when shopping 'green'.
Buy Local - Shipping is one of a products biggest contributing factors to the environment. So no matter what product you are buying, if it's grown or manufactured around you (better yet, both) then the less distance it will have to travel to get to your hands, meaning less use of petroleum.

Organic Cotton - Organic cotton is grown without the use of herbicides or pesticides so it's obviously better then regular cotton goods. But beware, cotton is still a water intensive crop so it's not ALL good.
All the Extra Packaging - It's just plain common sense that all the extra packaging that some of your favorite stuff comes in is just plain silly. See if there is an alternative purchase with less packaging or if it's something you must have, email a complaint about the packaging to the company. Also if it's something you get often see if you can but it ... (see next)
In Bulk - Food (and camping fuel for those adventures) are best bought in bulk where there is little impact on the environment directly because of the lack of packaging and indirectly by the fact you aren't going to be filling the landfill with packaging. And most often, it's better for the wallet too!

Organic Wool - Organic wool means that the wool producing sheep aren't subject to drugs and chemical feed just like organic meat at the grocery store. The downside is that sheep are still eating all releasing methane into the atmosphere all day (yes, that means farting).
Bamboo - Bamboo grows like crazy and doesn't require much (or really any) soil to do so, just water. Currently there is no third-party watchdog over the production of bamboo goods so hopefully harvesters aren't deforesting areas for bamboo farms.
Maintain Gear and Clothing - The best option for buying green is to buy nothing at all. Waterproofing your old boats, tent and jacket goes a long way. Also, hanging your clothes to dry not only saves energy by not running the dryer but saves you garments from the destructive nature of the dryers heat.
Hemp - Hemp is a fast growing, low water using crop. Like Bamboo there is no watchdog to look after developing it, and retting the hemp removes oxygen from the water used in retting, which if done in rivers or streams returns the H2 without the O and possibly hurting the marine life.

Recycled polyester or nylon - Old polyester and nylon garments can be made new once again through recycling, keeping the material out of landfills and requiring less of the brand-new stuff to produce a wearable item. If you've got some old garments lying around you can take them to a Mountain Equipment Co-Op store. Patagonia also accepts old Patagonia polyester and nylon gear to be made anew once again.